Dorothy Garlock (36 page)

“I have to think about what you said. We're not at all suited, you know.” She pressed her parted lips to his again. He ran his fingers through her dark curls to the nape of her neck and gently massaged it.

“You suit me, sweetheart. I'd not change one thing about you. But
I'll
change. I'll make myself into whatever you want me to be.” He murmured against her lips and kissed them again and again, not daring to press too hard and kiss too passionately, for fear of scaring her. The tip of his tongue stroked her upper lip. “Let's just take it one day at a time. My main concern now is that you, Mary Pat and your mother are safe.”

“Whoever tried to run you over will try again. I'll worry about you.”

“Honey, I've never heard sweeter words, ”he whispered, unable to believe that he'd heard them. “No one has ever worried about me but Dinah and Casper.”

“I'll worry. Mama will worry, too. She likes you. Mary Pat thinks you're grand.”

“How about Laura? Does she like me … a little bit? ”

“She'd not be here kissing you if she didn't.”

“This is worth being hit by a dozen cars! ”he exclaimed and placed soft kisses on her wet lips.

He could have stood there forever if not for the pain in his hip and leg. The thought came to him that he still had to cross that rough field to reach the car where Casper waited.

“I should go, but I don't want to. Promise that you and your mother will stay together. When she goes to the hotel, go with her, or come stay with Dinah. She would fuss over you and the baby. I don't like you being here alone.”

“We'll see. Don't worry. Mama and I have been taking care of ourselves for quite a while.”

Hunter stepped off the porch still holding her hand. He lifted it to his lips, gently kissed the palm, then walked out into the dark yard toward the field. He scarcely felt the pain in his leg and hip for the happiness in his heart.

Laura, his precious Laura, cared something for him. It might not be love now, but he had hope. If she would let him, he would cherish her for a lifetime.

Thad spent a miserable night on the cot in the hallway, but it was not any more miserable than the previous nights, only that this night seemed longer. A lot longer. After his talk with Joe, he had about made up his mind to try and talk to Jill again. When he had approached her in the lobby, she went down the hallway to her aunt's room and closed the door. That took care of that.

He had sat in the kitchen while Radna sliced cucumbers and put them to soak in salt water. Blue was there. Those two spent quite a lot of time together. Radna was good for Blue, and he for her. They seemed to speak the same language. At times the barbs they flung at each other made a person uncomfortable. But they had an understanding, and that was all that mattered. Tonight, after Radna finished in the kitchen, they walked off into the darkness together.

Thad was worried about Lloyd Madison. It was his opinion that the man was unbalanced, mean and manipulative. Joe had told him about Lloyd hinting that he and Jill were lovers. Thad's blood boiled on hearing that and he longed to plant his fist in the man's face. He hadn't believed for an instant that Jill was meeting that madman in his room. It was so ridiculous that he hadn't thought it worth reassuring Jill.

Now, in the light of dawn, he got up, dressed and folded the canvas cot. After he put it away, he headed for the outhouse behind the hotel, which he used most of the time instead of the small lavatory at the end of the hall.

As soon as he walked out onto the porch, he lifted his head to sniff the air. He stepped off the porch, looked toward the south and saw great clouds of black, greasy smoke boiling skyward against a horizon streaked with the rays of the rising sun.

Oil fire!
He'd seen several during the past few years. Somewhere out there on the prairie a well or a tank was burning wild, hurling thousands of cubic feet of gas or oil upward in a raging sheet of hell. There was a tank farm nearby with dozens of tanks filled with oil. If the fire spread and reached the flow tanks, the entire area could go up in flames.

Thad hit the porch running and didn't stop until he was on the second floor of the hotel, flinging open the door to Joe and Blue's room. The door bounced back against the wall. Both men reared up in bed.

“What the hell — ”Blue sputtered.

“Oil fire! Let's go! They'll need all the experienced help they can get to keep it from reaching the tank farm, if it hasn't already.”

Blue bounced out of bed, naked as a plucked chicken, and pulled on his britches.

“I'm going, ”Thad said. “One of you will have to stay here with the women. It would be just like Madison to take advantage of a situation like this.”

“I'm with you.” Blue was putting on his shoes.

“Guess that leaves you, Joe, ”Thad said. “Come on, Blue. I'll go get the car started.”

“Hell, ”Joe grumbled as he hurried after them down the stairs.

Jill had come to the doorway of her room when she heard the commotion.

“What's going on? ”

“An oil well is on fire, ”Joe said. “Thad and Blue are going out to help.”

“Don't they want breakfast… or coffee? ”

“No time.”

Thad started to walk past her, then paused, snaked an arm around her waist and jerked her up close. His mouth came down on hers, fast and strong. The force of it left her reeling and helpless to resist her own answering need. Her lips softened and parted as she tumbled deaf and blind into a kiss that went on and on. His mouth worked on hers, frantic and impatient.

When he lifted his head, green eyes beneath heavily lashed lids stared down into hers as if daring her to deny what was between them. His arm dropped from around her. She staggered back against the wall and stood there until she heard the back screen door slam.

He was gone.

As Thad and Blue neared the burning oil well, a rising wind whipped choking clouds of dust across the plains to mingle with the smoke. The derrick and engine house were a twisted mass of red flames. Cars were parked back along the road; men stood gawking, but no one seemed to be doing anything.

Fifty yards from the burning inferno, Thad slammed on the brakes. He recognized George Hinkle, the head driller, standing with a group of grim-faced men. They were apparently oblivious to the danger they were in. Thad knew instantly that the heat from the fire could cause the overflow tank to explode. If so, the men would be scalded with burning oil. He jumped from the car and plowed through lakes of water from a leaky water pump to yell at the men.

“Stay back! ”he shouted. “Stay back from the tank. I've seen them explode from the heat.”

The urgency in his voice set the men to running. A minute later the tank exploded, sending spraying flaming oil in all directions, igniting pools of it on the water.

“Jesus! Jesus! ”George said again and again. “If we'd been standing there — ”

“Get shovels, boards, anything to heap dirt and keep the burning oil from traveling on the water to another tank, ”Thad shouted as Blue ran to get shovels from the back of their car.

Working desperately to build a dirt dam, a dozen men dug into the red Oklahoma soil. Small pools of burning oil floated on the water. As soon as they dammed up one area, they shifted to another. George worked alongside Thad. Men from other drilling companies gathered along the road to watch. A few brought shovels and pitched in to help. A dozen others stood around watching.

“Mr. Westfall will be out as soon as he knows when the fire crew will be here. I hear you've had some experience in putting out fires, ”George said to Thad.

“Not much. I've helped a time or two when steam was used to put out a fire while the wellhead was capped. Who did Westfall call? ”

“Jim Hovelson out of Tulsa.”

“He's got a good team, ”Thad said. “It'll take him a couple hours to get here.”

“Mr. Westfall was farsighted enough to see that we've got the best boilers made.”

“Hell of a time to have a leak in your water tank.”

“I'm thinking that leak didn't just happen this time.”

Thad swore. “Did the leak cut your water supply so that you couldn't get enough mud in the well? ”

“I've no way of knowing. We had a five-man crew. The derrick man, firemen and two floor men got off. The driller didn't make it off the derrick.” George swore. “He was a damn good man.”

“Could the fire have been set? ”

“I don't think so. My men wouldn't have let anyone they didn't know near the derrick. The most frequent cause of an oil well fire is when a geological formation is struck by the drilling bit, inducing a higher pressure than the weight of the long column of drilling mud. We just put in a new bit.”

“How far down were you? ”

“A thousand feet into blue shale. We may have hit a gas pressure, and the weight of the drilling mud wasn't enough to keep it from blowing.”

“Mr. Westfall has enemies among the small wildcatters. Stirred up, no doubt, by Lloyd Madison.”

“Yeah, the bastard.”

The heat from the towering fire and the burning tank scorched the faces of the men trying to contain the water to keep the oil and the fire from spreading. The thick black greasy smoke made it difficult to breathe.

“All we can do is try to keep the fire from spreading to the next tank, ”George said. The oilman's face was set in hard lines. The big rawboned hand dropped from the shovel to form a tight fist.

“Usually men from other companies will pitch in to help when there's an emergency.” Thad glanced at a group of men watching the frantic effort they were making to keep the fire contained.

“Madison has done a good job turning the men against Westfall.”

“Do you know why? ”

“No. The rumor is that when Madison first came to Rainwater, he wanted Westfall's legal work and to be cozy with him, includin 'sharin 'his female company. Madison was put out when it didn't happen. He then began working on the roustabouts to organize for higher pay and shorter hours.” George snorted. “They should go work down around Healdton and they'll see how good they have it here. I'll compare Westfall's pay with any in the state.”

“Seems like Madison's gone to a lot of trouble to get back at a man who didn't want to have him over for dinner.”

“Yeah, well, some of us think Madison isn't playing with a full deck most of the time.”

“I'll go along with that.”

Having surrounded the pool of water with a high dirt bank, the weary men stopped to lean on their shovels. Their fire-reddened faces glistened with sweat.

“Some fire ya got here, George.”

As soon as the man spoke, Thad recognized him as one of the men in the pool hall the night he was there with Jelly Bryce and had the little set-to with Madison.

“Yeah, Sample. It cost the life of a good man, a man with a woman and two kids. If I find out the valve on that water pump was stripped intentionally, I know who to come looking for.”

“Hey, now! You accusin 'me? ”

“If the shoe fits — ”

“Gawddammit! I don't know nothin 'bout how this fire got started or how your water pump fizzled.”

“You don't know jack-shit, Sample. All you know is what that shyster lawyer feeds you, and you don't have the brains to think for yourself.”

“If you're not going to work, get the hell out of the way.” Thad brought his shovel up and pressed it against the man's chest and pushed him back.

“Don't ya be pushin 'me, ya hayseed, ”Oscar Sample sputtered. “Mr. Madison said ya ain't nothin 'but a hanger-on hopin 'to get some pussy from that gal at the hotel.”

Thad dropped the shovel and hit him. His fist smashed into the man's face. Sample took several stumbling backward steps before he hit the ground. Blood spurted from his broken nose.

“Open your mouth again and I'll string your guts from here to Tulsa. If you know what's good for you, you'll get the hell away from here while you've got legs to carry you.”

Sample scrambled to his feet and backed away out of Thad's reach.

“You'll not get away with this. We're goin 'to organize. Then all of ya will be fixed good.” A couple of men came forward and stood beside Oscar Sample.

Blue moved up beside Thad. “There's only three of them, Thad. It ain't hardly worth gettin 'dirty for. I can take two of them if you're tired.”

“Naw. We've got more important things to do. I'll meet this piece of horseshit some night. It'll be just him and me, and after I've finished with him, he'll have a new asshole and be wearing a diaper for the rest of his life.”

“Ouch! ”Blue said and picked up his shovel.

“Now, listen here, all a ya, ”George shouted when more men hurried up to support Sample. “If there's any trouble, I'll see ya all in jail.”

One of them whispered something. They looked back down the road, then backed away, taking Oscar Sample with them.

“Shit a brick, George, you messed it up, ”Blue said. “I wanted to hit someone.”

“Save it for Madison. He's the one that's got these poor fools stirred up.”

The sheriff was trying to steer his car down the road now clogged with cars, trucks, boys on bicycles and men on horseback. Sightseers from town were out in full force. Black greasy smoke continued to billow from the well and the tank. The men were putting out small grass fires.

“The wind is changing. Watch that second tank. Jesus! Someone tell those people to get the hell back, ”Thad said loudly.

The sheriff, Jelly Bryce and Hunter Westfall got out of the sheriff's car. Hunter, ignoring the jeers from Oscar Sample and his cronies, hurried over to George.

“Jim Hovelson and his crew will be here within the hour. Anyone hurt? ”

“Payne Caldwell, the driller. I couldn't find him when I got here. He may have been on the crown board when the well went up.”

“Ah, law. I'm sorry about that.” There was genuine sorrow on Hunter's face.

“Any idea how it started? ”

“No. But whoever caused the leak in the water tank had a hand in it. The valve is stripped. We couldn't pump enough mud. Lord God, but I wish I'd shut down the well.”

Hunter put his hand on George's shoulder. “You had no way of knowing. Don't blame yourself.”

“Having any trouble with those boys? ”Sheriff Page asked with a jerk of his head toward Oscar Sample and the men who had jeered Hunter.